In some ways, a table used many times for painting rocks can be as interesting as the painted rocks. A while ago, I posted an image of part of a table taken between rock painting sessions. Last year, I decided to paint a rock, myself, and that allowed me to throw an only moderately clean paint tray into the mix.
iPhone 5s, ISO 200, PureShot camera app, two-exposure HDR at 2 EV increments
processing highlights
- The first layer, with the tray in the upper left, was copied, rotated 180 degrees, and applied in Darken blend mode. Because that obscured the trays, the one in the upper left was revealed with a mask.
- Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset partially masked off tray
- Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Color blend mode
- Fractalius -- three saved black-on-white presets; Multiply, Divide, Multiply
- Snap Art and Simplify -- saved black-on-white edges presets, Multiiply
- two Joel Olives textures -- both Soft Light and masked off tray
- The tray was copied, pasted, rotated 180 degrees, and moved to the bottom right.
- A circle selection was used to copy, paste, and move a different part of the table into the wells in each tray. Various blend modes and opacities were applied.


